Poor school students' quota: Apex court verdict Thursday

New Delhi, April 11 (IANS) The Supreme Court will Thursday pronounce its verdict on a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the right to education law that requires private schools to earmark 25 percent seats for poor students.

The judgment, reserved Aug 3, 2011 after a prolonged hearing, would be pronounced by a bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice K.S.P. Radhakrishnan and Justice Swatanter Kumar.

There will be two judgments one by the Chief Justice Kapadia and other by Justice Radhakrishnan.

A batch of petitions by Society for Unaided Private Schools, Independent Schools Federation of India and others had contested the provision in the law under which they had to reserve 25 percent seats for economically weaker sections in their schools.

The schools contended that the reservation of 25 percent seats for the children from vulnerable sections of society violated their right to run educational institution without the state's interference.

The schools' contention that the reservation for poor students would drain their resources was contested by the government promised to reimburse the money spend by them of these students.